Closet Design is an Art

You may be thinking, ‘How hard could it be to design a closet?  Surely anyone can do it!’

It’s not as easy as it looks.  Today ‘do-it-yourselfers’ purchase parts, hardware and accessories to outfit their dream closet, but they overlook the many issues that must be considered when creating a successful closet design, such as:

Height, width and depth of available space
Ceiling/Wall light fixtures
Air-Conditioning Ducts
Electrical Boxes or Outlets
Windows and Doors
Baseboard Molding
Ceiling Attic Hatch Doors

Closet design is dependent on the integration of essential details including: personal preferences and needs, style, form and function into the limited space that is being designed.

In addition, people either fail to understand their choices in what’s available or tend to over-design a space that lacks practicality. Choosing correctly from a plethora of accessories is a skill and knowledge base closet designers excel at.  Closet designers not only know what’s available, they are capable of weeding through the many choices to zero in on a few recommendations, uniquely suited for each design.

In short…Closet design is an art.

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Did you know… Googie architecture

Googie architecture is a form of modern architecture, a subdivision of futurist architecture influenced by car culture and the Space and Atomic Ages. Originating in Southern California during the late 1940s and continuing approximately into the mid-1960s, Googie-themed architecture was popular among motels, coffee houses and gas stations. The term “Googie” comes from a now defunct coffee shop and cafe built in West Hollywood.

Features of Googie include upswept roofs, curvaceous, geometric shapes, and bold use of glass, steel and neon. Googie was also characterized by Space Age designs depicting motion, such as boomerangs, flying saucers, atoms and parabolas, and free-form designs such as “soft” parallelograms and an artist’s palette motif. These stylistic conventions represented American society’s fascination with Space Age themes and marketing emphasis on futuristic designs.

As with the Art Deco style of the 1930s, Googie became less valued as time passed, and many buildings built with this style have been destroyed. Some examples of the style have been preserved, such as the oldest McDonald’s stand qualifying for the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

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The 2011 Pritzker Architecture Prize

Eduardo Souto de Moura, a 58 year old architect from Portugal, is the 2011 Pritzker Architecture Prize winner, the world architecture’s highest honor.

The purpose of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, which was founded in 1979 by the late Jay A. Pritzker and his wife, is to honor annually a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through architecture.

During the past three decades, Eduardo Souto de Moura has produced a body of work that is of our time but also carries echoes of architectural traditions. His buildings have a unique ability to convey seemingly conflicting characteristics – power and modesty, bravado and subtlety, bold public authority and a sense of intimacy – at the same time.

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